Aquí vamos. #mastoread

@Melody_M As an #SF&F author, I've got some opinions about books in the genre!

I am not seeing all the replies, but I know someone recommended On Basilisk Station by #DavidWeber. This starts a fabulous space opera series with the main character a young naval officer named #HonorHarrington. The spin-offs are good, too. Your profile indicates some military background, so you'll appreciate it more. With a name like "Honor," you can bet ethics and principles come up a lot, and how this conflicts with winning or whether your side is good or bad. The subtext highlights the tensions between western cultures in our age, and how modern nations may look the same if you look at their cities—but Germany, the US, UAE, and Saudi Arabia are quite different when you look closer, and so is how they express their might.

For pure fantasy, assuming you're new to the genres, why not find #AnneMcCaffery's Dragon series? The spin-offs are good, if you can't get enough. I like #AndreNorton, but her series are retro and may be harder to find than Anne's, with some not in print.

For #urbanfantasy and books you can buy now, I cannot recommend #PatricaBriggs Mercy Thompson series enough. #Fairies, #Werewolves, and #Vampires coming out to modern society (mostly) and in a way that feels visceral and real. Romance, adventure, and coming of age.

As a #ClarionWest grad, I'd like to recommend two of my cohort to you, not just because I now them, but they're stories are amazing—and they are great human beings.

James S.A. Corey (1/2 a pen name for #DanielAbraham). The #Expanse series is hardcore SF at its #Heinlein best. Peak at Daniel's fantasy book, too! Look for the third name he publishes under, and you'll find great, snarky, urban fantasy. References to #PinkMartini, anyone?

#DianaRowland writes urban fantasy, but with the background of a former police officer (I think she made detective). Start with My Life as a White Trash Zombie for a #zombie coroner. Maybe a conflict of interest there? Start with Mark of the Demon for a #demon summoner who's also a detective, with, again, some conflicts of interest. Adventure, mystery, and romance, too.

If someone asks nicely, I may recommend my book.

#books
#booksuggestions
#mastoread

Good morning #mastoworld
Starting this new book #CompanionPiece from #AliSmith and first book for me from this author.
Any feedback on this one and on the author in general ?
#mastobooks #Mastoread #mastolivre

Good morning #mastoworld
Starting this new book #CompanionPiece from #AliSmith and first book for me from this author.
Any feedback on this one and on the author in general ?
#mastobooks #Mastoread #mastolivre

Hey #Fediverse, I need suggestions for #SciFiBooks or #FantasyBooks to read. Old or new, what are some good ones? Bonus points for series with 3 or more books.

#Books #MastoRead #BookSuggestions

"If the cows were to have gods, their gods would have horns - just like themselves."

Paraphrase from Xenophanes

#DoOurgodsHaveHornsToo
#上推讀書 #MastoRead

Tyrants “suspect good men rather than bad, and are always afraid of another’s virtue”.

Sallust, Bellum Catilinae 7:2

#上推讀書 #Mastoread

[A tyrant] kills not for justice’ sake but by his power [&] lust of his will.

Thus there can be no safety. Everything is uncertain…Nobody will be able firmly to state: This thing is such and such, when it depends upon the will of another, not to say upon his caprice.

Aquinas #MastoRead

No trap is harder to detect than that which lies concealed behind apparent loyalty or family connection. The open enemy, with care, can be avoided. But the threat from within the walls, the hidden threat from the domestic hearth, is upon us and overpowers us before we see it coming and take its measure.
Cicero
(Verrine Orations 2.1.13)
#MastoRead

But the wise man, they say, will undertake just wars. As though just wars will not cause him all the more grief, if he is mindful of his own humanity!
Augustine of Hippo
#MastoRead

Consider this line from a pagan comedy — it is a commonplace which is grasped instinctively:
Married a wife. That was a curse.
Then came the kids. They made it worse.
(The Brothers 5.4.13)
Augustine of Hippo
#上推讀書 #MastoRead

Nächste Lesung #WASUS:

Donnerstag, 24. November, um 19:30 Uhr.

:mastoread: #MastoRead

According to the logic of conspiracism, any widely accepted belief must of necessity be false, because it is tainted by association with the forces that shape the “official” version of reality, the forces attempting to deceive us. Therefore, rejected knowledge is accorded particular validity, its rejection by the guardians of cultural orthodoxy signals its proximity to the truth.

Mathew Guest

#MastoRead

“Your life as a Christian should make non-believers question their disbelief in God.”

Bonhoeffer

“Your life as a Christian should make the believers question their belief in God.”

Paul Tillich

#上推讀書 #MastoRead

(2/2)….taking it upon themselves as a historically inevitable “sin,” is violence legitimate, and only then can it lead to the creation of a society in which the morally right way of life becomes the effective norm of everyday conduct.

Greg Lukacs #MastoRead

The historical necessity of violence, as the only way to break the power of existing exploitative order, was sharply counterposed to the universally valid moral imperative never to treat another person as a mere means, for whatever ends. Only if all those who exercise violence do so in the full consciousness of its ethical impermissibility…(1/2)

Georg Lukacs #上推讀書 #MastoRead

just finished a remarkable #mastoread #mastoreading :blobaww: :blobcheerbounce:

Reading "Holy Fire" by Bruce Sterling. It's a sci-fi #biopunk novel about the future where all power is in hands of gerontocrats. Actually, the last is not too fantastic...

#scifi #sterling #books #mastoread #SFFBookClub